Gravel to Sand

[courtnee]

I plan to get a 75gl soon and that will have sand in it. I have a 55gl now that has light gravel. My tank has mostly bottom fish and I rather have sand in my 55gl as well. Plus I am planning ahead for the 75gl for seed material.

How hard is it to switch from gravel to sand in a large tank? Is it doable? I know sand clouds the water bad at first until it settles so I worry about that.

Could a person replace small sections of gravel for sand and eventually switch over to just sand in the tank? What is the best way to do this? How long would you suggest in between replacing them to let the bacteria catch up?

I plan to do a PFS in my 75gl tank and will likely do it in my 55gl as well. I figure I will add more PFS to my 55gl then I need so in the future in a few months I can take out the extra from the 55gl and use it in the 75l for seed material.

How many pounds of sand would I need for a 55gl?

Also I have a HOB filter on my 55gl with two sides that just has the basic filter media in it. I dont use carbon.. I use sheets that I cut to fit that remove phos. for algae issues. (brown algae break out from new tank) and it has worked rather well. I plan to change filters in my 55gl when I get the 75gl and stop using these sheets.

For now what media can I stick in my HOB to seed for the 75gl? I plan to get a Rena XP3 for the 75gl.

My plan is Xp2 for the 55gl as an upgrade and run a xp3 on the 75gl. I figure since the 75gl is going to have a pleco and some clown loaches and larger pictus the larger filter would be best?

Would it be best to go get the xp2 for the 55gl now and use that to seed instead of the HOB? The xp2 has more room for media doesnt it?

Petsmart is having a sale on these filters. Online they have the xp2 at $99.97 and the xp3 at $129.97 which is a good deal. I could take in the online price and get the xp2.

How easy is it to hook these up? It looks complicated. Does someone have a picture of how the tubes go into the tank?

 

[spyyro]

I have a 75 gal set up right now with PFS in it and it didn't cloud the water at all really. Just make sure you wash the sand very well before you put it in the tank. (I washed using the 5 gal bucket method until the water ran pretty clear... ~3-4 times). I used (2) 50 lb bags of the sand for the 75 gal. The sand was placed in the tank first, before any water was introduced.

As far as the XP3 goes... I purchased mine online for only $99.99 from drsfostersmith.com. Overall, with shipping, I think it was around $115 or so. The XP2 is on sale there for $77.99 as well. As far as connecting the filters... I didn't think it was a problem. The directions are quite clear on how to connect it all and get it up and running. Intake from one side of the tank... return water at the other side. There's a couple of different configuations you can use with the filter as well. You can use the spraybar that's included or use a powerjet nozzle that's also included. There's enough parts included for different sizes of aquariums too. I didn't use all the parts they provided. They are also very quiet running filters... even more so than I was expecting! Here's the link... (hope it works).
HTH and good luck.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produ...ll&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&N=2004&Nty=1

 

[theotheragentm]

I used one 50 lb. bag of sand in my 55 gallon tank. You will probably want two of these for your 75 gallon. They're $10 each or so at a local pool supply store. I had a strange experience apparently, as my sand was REALLY cloudy. I rinsed the stuff like crazy, and it still clouded up my tank. Fortunately there was nothing else in it, and a full water change finished up the job. So you may need some rinsing if you get a batch like my sand.

The filters should be much cheaper online. The price difference isn't that significant on the XP3 and XP2. I would get XP3's for both. I run an XP3 on my 55 gallon tank. You can reduce your output flow if you have problems with plants blowing over, or you can put the spraybar up top horizontally.

 

[Sidi]

I would replace it all at once. There probably isn't enough bacteria in the gravel to cause the tank to cycle, just keep an eye on things.

If the gravel is thin as you say, you could always just put the sand over it. The downside would be that you would probably see some gravel through the side of the tank, and you wouldn't be able to reuse the gravel later.

Otherwise, if you don't want to completely drain the tank, I would just remove all the plants/decorations and use a tupperware container or well-washed dustpan to scoop the gravel out. I've found that many dustpans are almost exactly the inside width of 12" tanks (29, 55, 75 long, etc.). You'd probably stress the fish out less by removing them to a bucket/garbage can (the square ones are great because you can just throw your filter on the back for water movement) while you do it as well. Then put the well-washed sand in and let it settle a little bit before putting the fish back in.

I've had many fish in the cloudy water conditions you may still have afterwards and none of them has had a problem. So don't worry too much about waiting for the water to be crystal clear. Just be sure the larger particles have settled.

 

[jbarr]

Uuh, pardon me if I'm wrong, but I think that there definetly WOULD be a substantial amount of bacteria in the gravel. If you do not have a lot of bio-media in the HOBs, I would advise against switching it all at once.

If you have plants or a colonoy of MTS or any snails, then I would remove most of the gravel, leaving enough to spread the bottom of the tank, and pour sand over that. This is only if you have many snails, or many plants, as anaerobic bacteria cultivate more readily in these conditions.

 

[courtnee]

I did the remove all gravel and replace with a new gravel on my 10gl and threw it into a mini cycle. My Betta got sick and I had to PWC a lot. I don't want to do that with my 55gl as I have several fish in there that are NOT fun to remove in the first place. They are all non netable fish. I think moving them into buckets would stress them out more compared to replacing small amounts of the gravel.

I do not have real plants in my tank and I do have many small snails that the clown loaches are eating. I have one large apple snail and he is all I worry about.

I dont want to keep the gravel in there so it shows through the sand though is the problem. I would like to switch it out.

I figure until I get the 75gl the Clown Loaches and Pleco would love the softer ground to lay on. LOL Im pretty sure the pictus cats would be okay with it too.